Road Trip to Chicago

Recently, Pudge and I went on a road trip to Chicago. We had just bought ourselves a 2008 Honda Civic. With gas prices at roughly US$4.o0 a gallon (US$1.05 per liter), our 2003 Dodge Intrepid was getting about 17 miles per gallon or 27 kilometers per gallon or 7.2 kilometers per liter. Yikes!! So we thought, it's time to trade the Dodge in for an eco-friendly vehicle. We also have an SUV (Saturn Outlook) so trading the Dodge for a smaller vehicle seemed the right choice. In fact, it's turned out to be an awesome investment. Turns out, our new Honda was getting....drum rolls please....30 miles per gallon in the CITY!! Hurray! So we wondered, just how many MPGs will it get on Highways. We were about to find out......jeng jeng jeng....the suspense......So it is roughly 500 miles (800 km) to Chicago from White Bear Lake. And with Pudgey's driving we were able to make it to Chicago within 6 hours. We left home at 8pm but made a bunch of stops to get gas, buy some food, water, and Mountain Dew soda pop (lots of caffeine) before we were on Highway 94 heading east to Chicago. I would say we were finally on our way by about 9pm. I tried to stay awake to keep Pudge company by telling him jokes and reading "Weird News" from the internet via my PDA phone, but eventually I ran out of "juice". So pretending to look for a sweater in the backseat, I quietly reclined my seat, stretched out my legs over the dash and began my five hour requiem of sleep...yes I was snoring. Poor lonely Pudge. At about 3 am, I was awaken by a series of noise that appeared to be coins clanking against metal rails. I woke up to find Pudge, my man, tired and hungry, rummaging through a small ziplock bag full of pennies in the dark and muttering to himself...."Stupid toll booth...stupid stupid piece of crap tollbooth". I swear, if I had been fully awake, I would have taken a video of Pudge. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Finally, what seemed like FOR-FRICKIN-EVER, Pudge threw enough coins into the metal basin for the toll barrier to lift and let us through. Hurray!!! Fully awake now, I kept Pudge company as we drove through the city of Chicago in search of our hotel. After driving around through a series of road construction, my Pudge found our hotel. We arrived to find that the front doors of the hotel had been locked. Hmmmm how odd! On the side of the glass doors, we discovered an intercom system. As instructed by the small placard below the intercom, we pressed the black button and summoned for service. An employee of Holiday Inn Express appeared (we could see him through the glass doors), and told us via intercom that the hotel was full. "Yes, OK, but we have reservations" Pudge tried to say but Mister Hotel Employee simply repeated "No rooms bye bye". No matter what we said, his response was the same "No rooms bye bye". From his accent and demeanor, we could only assume that he was foreign and lacked customer service training...BIG TIME! heheheh. Although tired, we had to laugh at his "No rooms bye bye". It reminded us of the "Soup Nazi" from the TV show Seinfeld. So for the remainder of the night (until we found a hotel), Pudge and I kept saying "No rooms bye bye" in that "Soup Nazi" voice until one of us laughed so hard and had to pee. After another half hour of driving, the sun was already making its morning appearance. We looked at the clock. It was close to 5am. We had been driving around in Chicago for almost 2 hours. We were ready to crash. Pudge and I settled on the Hilton Garden Inn. Ahhh a nice room, clean sheets, hot shower, and we were ready for a long hard nap. At about noon, we woke up hungry but rested. Pudge and I got up, dressed, and planned our day. First we had to find out just how many MPGs were we able to squeeze out of our Honda. Are you ready??? We got 40 miles per gallon for our trip to Chicago! Yes, we definitely love our little Civic. While in Chicago, we did a bunch of stuff, went to Navy Pier, Lalapalooza, took a dinner cruise on a yacht in Lake Michigan, walked around Michigan Avenue to look at the fantastic architecture, and went to the Medieval Times Dinner and Show where Pudge was knighted. Yes, my man is now Sir Pudge! heheheheh...so instead of reading about our roadtrip, click on the link for photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/puterinor/ChicagoRoadTripSummer2008